


In Another Life

by sixnumbers



Category: Snowpiercer (2013)
Genre: Afterlife, Gen, Post-Canon, Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-08
Updated: 2014-07-08
Packaged: 2018-02-08 01:23:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1921365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sixnumbers/pseuds/sixnumbers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He is surprised he can hold a grudge in Heaven. Paradise. Whatever this was. He was the last arrival with Namgoong. Tanya answered the door and hugged them both. Edgar wouldn't speak to him, and Grey spoke so much.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Another Life

**Author's Note:**

> I had several sad thoughts about Snowpiercer, and I was partially inspired to write a Happy Afterlife fic from numerous other fics I've read.

Curtis looked up in the sky, covering his eyes from the sun's rays. It was bright and beautiful, and he smiled up at the planes and the birds. He didn't expect either here.

“Nothing unusual up there.” Edgar's voice is dry. "But you're still staring at it.

“I've just missed it, is all. And you should be the one looking up in awe. You never saw this when you were alive.”

“And now what? I'm dead _and_ bored and you're dead _and_ birdwatching.”

“A guy likes the sky as often as he can get it. You can do something else, y'know. Plenty to read, people to talk to.”

Edgar shook his head from under the tree shade. “Nah. It's fine. We've got forever to watch the sky. Anyways, I like this.” He patted the trunk of the tree. “A tree, right?”

“Yeah. We saw some later in the train but...”

“I was dead. Thanks to you.” Edgar smiled while he said it. “But...I understand why you did it.”

Curtis turned and looked at Edgar fully. He should have a scar around his throat, his dying face still haunted him. He still hadn't forgiven himself, though apparently someone else did. Edgar looked away from him, frowning with one side of his mouth.

“I was a sacrifice. I died so other people could make it.”

“We would have lost there if I didn't grab Mason.”

“I forgive you. I was just--We're here together now, aren't we? And I can have steak and fruit and all this other shit I've never had before.” Edgar smiles.“It tastes fuckin' great. Better than I could have imagined.”

____________

Tanya was reading on the porch, as she had done since he first came here. He only grabbed her attention after stepping on a creaky part. Her eyebrows perked and she closed her book, setting her thumb in the space she was reading.

"Reading again?"

“I used to read every book I could get my hands on,” she hummed.

“Well, there's plenty here.” He smiled, he was at least glad for that.

“And all the time in the world,” she added.

“I was never much of a reader.”

Tanya laughed. “Never seemed like it. You changed from when you were 17. And not just as getting older. Somehow, in that metal box, you gathered some spirit and some sanity.”

“Sanity?" Curtis laughed, an honest one he can't remember doing in so long. "Is that a good thing? It's why we're all here.”

“We'd all be here anyway.” Tanya put up a hand, fanning away imagined worries. “Don't think Wilfred would have gunned us down?”

“Who knows. If I had just--”

“Stop. _Stop_. Don't dwell on the past.” She worried the pages of her book with her nails. “It won't do any good here. And you already know the answer, don't you?”

The two are silent for a moment. Curtis rolled up his sleeves, just to do something.

“Do you think Timmy will come here when he's done, too?”

Curtis rubbed his arms. “Yeah. He has to. I saw my mom and dad. He's gotta come and see you.”

Tanya nodded with a smile, and went back to reading.

____________

Namgoong was on the couch, drawing out what seems to be another house on a wide desk. He was surrounded by other paper, pencils and black bits of charcoal, and his fingers were black with it. Curtis remembered a large table like that before, but he can't remember why or when. The plans are big and wide, with magnificent archways in the hallways.

“I didn't realize you did architecture, too.”

“I have a lot of other talents”, he responded with a small smile. He's still speaking Korean but he understands without the need for a translator device. "You can't make doors lock without understanding the rest of the building, too."

“I like it”, and Namgoong brushed away the eraser marks instead of accepting the compliment.

"It will be better when I work on it more."

Curtis put his hands in his pockets, forgetting the ones he has now don't have holes in them. 

“Do you think Yona will be okay? She must still be alive with Timmy. They're not here yet.”

Namgoong stopped and puts down his pencil.

“When she get here, it will be with a fight in her heart. She's more powerful than she let on, you know.”

“Yeah. I believe in her, too.”

Namgoong went back to sketching.

“If there's anything I taught her, it was to do her best. But sometimes, even that can't be enough.”

__________

Curtis found Grey laying in a sunbeam in a sparsely furnished room. He can't remember if it had always been there or not. Curtis began to walk away, but Grey's voice was light and crisp. Curtis had never heard the boy speak in real life. He had yet to get over it. But Grey's tattoos were all gone, olive skin glowing, mouth creating words instead of noise.

“The sun. Did it always feel this nice?”

“Yeah. Warm sun on your skin--you feel like a plant.” He vaguely remembered a trip to the beach, feeling warm all over.

Curtis settled on the door frame as Grey looked up at the ceiling.

“The green stuff, right?”

“Yeah. Like the grass, on the lawn, and the roses.”

Grey nodded.

“It's all so beautiful. How did we mess all of that up?”

“We've got books on it”, and Curtis decided to move on.

_____

He wondered where Gilliam is.

He realized he can't care. Not after what he had done. Had he really thought it was for the best? Had he sacrificed for any real reasons but his own?

He was surprised he can hold a grudge in Heaven. Paradise. Whatever _this_ was. He was the last arrival with Namgoong. Tanya answered the door and hugged them both. Edgar wouldn't speak to him, and Grey spoke so much.

Across the street, a man with one arm played with his son. He had both arms again. Their house is small and keeps changing colors. Inside, he saw a hand with painted nails, but it moved away too quickly. The boy, his hair grown back, tackled his father onto the grass and they both laugh. He hears violins on the air, but can't place where they're coming from anymore. He had met them here again, respected and whole. As they all should have been.

_______

Someone's ringing the doorbell.

Curtis rushes down the steps. Who is it now? They get visitors sometimes. The violinists, a guard to apologize. Apparently he made dying penance. Seemed cheap to him. Curtis could swear he saw Mason, with long brown hair and normal teeth, when he went for a walk one day. She was ethereal and haunting, something she probably never was in life.

Curtis opens the door.

A familiar, wide-eyed face, dressed in black. In tow, a small, equally familiar boy smiles up at him.

“Yona. Timmy?”

“Hi, Curtis!” Timmy smiles.

“Hi, Curtis.” Yona looks downtrodden, but still pushes out a small smile.

Everyone was at the door now. Grey rushes down on the bannister and Tanya must have left her book as she keeps her skirt half-balled in fists. Soon, her hands cross her heart. Namgoong rushes in and takes Yona in his arms immediately. The girl takes a deep breath, then buries her face in Namgoong's shoulder, and wraps her arms around him. She seems tired, as if she had carried Timmy here on her back.

“Papa.”

“Yeah, yeah. It's me”, Namgoong sniffles.

Timmy starts to cry, and Tanya picks him up, holds him in her arms tightly.

“We tried. We froze.” Yona chokes on her words.

“It was so cold, Mommy”, Timmy muttered.

“We ran out of food and fuel. We ate the bear and the...” She hesitates. “we ate them, we ate all of them that were dead. There were no matches or Kronol and nothing burned.”

Grey stands back and watches, and Edgar finally gets inside, standing just outside of the room. Curtis stands frozen in the doorway, looking at everyone. He realizes that humans are dead and gone and thinks _good riddance_ but also _what becomes of Earth now_?

“I'm sorry. I've let everyone down.”

“No.” Namgoong cups Yona's face. “You did your best. As you always have.”

Namgoong kisses her forehead, brushes her hair lovingly.

“I only thought of you and how you would have to see the sun again, be outside even for a little bit.”

Yona turned to Curtis and looked back at her father. “You saved me and Timmy and we just died anyway. I tried keeping him fed but he's growing, and we couldn't trek through the ice forever."

“We tried”, Timmy said sadly.

Curtis wipes his face, still alarmed at his clean-shaved cheeks, and sniffles hard. It is everything bubbling over and melting into one emotion. The birds chirping go silent, and he puts his arms around Yona and Namgoong. Tanya and Timmy join and soon Grey and Edgar close around the huddled mass. Yona sobbed the quietest, probably finished crying for eternity.

They weren't in the train anymore. No Wilfred and Mason, no guards and no protein slabs. They could read and learn and travel and move and they were _free._ Finally free.

It was all he could have hoped for.

 


End file.
